Capturing the Essense of Shipwrecks through Pete Mesley’s Lens

All images courtesy of Pete Mesley.

I have been taking underwater images for over 20 years mainly focusing on shipwreck photography. This was to help promote Lust4Rust, my dive travel business. Lust4Rust runs dive trips to some of the most well-known wreck locations around the globe. Now that I have thousands of stock images showcasing the different wrecks, I wanted to focus on putting much more into each image. I want to fulfil one objective on each dive – ‘to capture the essence of the wreck I am diving’. It’s about trying to light up large areas inside an engine room or large holds full of cargo. After much trial and error, I discovered that using a range of off board constant lights I could achieve great results.

The photographic package I use is – Nikon D810, Sigma 15mm lens, Aquatica housing and assorted Bigblue LED dive lights ranging from 2.8k to 15k lumens. These lights work a treat. The images in this exposé are a selection
of what I have been able to achieve. If you would like to join me on one of my adventures to places like Truk Lagoon, Bikini Atoll, Great Lakes USA, South China Sea, Greece and more locations then contact me through my website: www.petemesley.com/lust4rust/